Friday

Mekan: The Cosmopolitan

Sometimes billed as “that Armenian-Jewish restaurant in Beyoglu,” Mekan harkens back to the neighborhood’s cosmopolitan past, when it was home to a large non-Muslim population. The food is sometimes Sephardic and Armenian, sometimes Turkish. But the important point here is the place’s authenticity. Mekan is not trying to be anything but a good restaurant with a kitchen turning out traditional favorites that it knows best. Hold the culinary nationalism, and dig in. Continue…